A consortium of researchers dedicated to improving the understanding of the human causes and consequences of terrorism

It is difficult to say just what Violence is about. The introduction wonders aloud whether “there is a unifying thesis that runs through the bric-a-brac of reflections on violence that follow” (p. 1), whereas the epilogue confidently concludes that the “circle of our investigation is thus closed” and offers a tight chapter-by-chapter summary before drawing a few succinct lessons (pp. 206–7, p. 213). The pages in-between, meanwhile, are neither as diffuse nor as focused as these bookend assessments suggest. Instead, the middle pages contain a jumble of off-kilter thoughts that loosely treat the title theme.